Reserved Usernames

I noticed that trying to create an account with a username starting with "test" generates an error:
"Sorry, that username is reserved."

Firstly, is there a list of reserved usernames somewhere so I can make my program account for that? Or perhaps an API function we can call before createacct to check a username's validity?

Also, the error message doesn't appear to have an error code - will it always be that exact message (i.e. even if CPanel is running in a different language)? I'm just wondering how would be best to properly catch errors like this, given that there is no error code with the message (that I can see).

Sorry there seems to be a problem in my PHP having to do with using variables in the xml-api string. Simply putting the email in the string works but putting &contactemail='.$email.' doesn't . I'll have to look into that.

I'm still not sure this should have any affect on the "james" vs. "fsandford" user name though.

So in conclusion, it still seems rediculous but seems to be a problem with PHP and not the xml-api.

PHP problem is fixed but still won't accept "fsandford" because there seems to be a limit of 8 characters set. How can that be changed? such a limit seriously limits the ability of a customer to find a user name that isn't already used and makes any since to them as a user name.

Your point is understood and has been a feature request for a while. We're working towards that goal currently.

cPanel limits the username to 8 characters for a few reasons, most of which fall into to categories: 1) OS and 2) sub-systems/services

1) cPanel has been around a long time and has had varying levels of support on mulitple *nix based platforms. Unfortuanately, not all of those platforms where designed to accomodate usernames with a length greater than 8 characters. In our current product we must provide legacy support of those systems.

2) Some sub-systems and services that are utilized by the system are tightly coupled with cPanel and cPanel usernames. Some of these sub-systems were designed with a similar paradigm or analogous limits as I describe above about OSes. Because of these, we have a bit of "chicken and egg" situation.

One of our broader goals is to decouple these sub-systems from the cPanel product. By doing this, we abstract these relationships and item #2 is a non-issue (ie, deferred to a smarter, more complex codebase). Additionally, cPanel has introduced a End Of Life Policy that should help reduce the legacy support (OS wise) required within the product and help free such limitations in future versions.

Best Regards,
-DavidN

David Neimeyer

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